Old BBC documentary about Imagine and Ocean of the ZX Spectrum and Commodore era

[Bad Sector]

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1012096952890708986

I just watched it. It is a documentary about two game development companies (which apparently they shared the same building), Imagine and Ocean. Both were big names in the industry of 1980s.

In early 1984 the Imagine team were working on a spectacular project known as Bandersnatch. The game was to come in an A4 sized box containing around 30 'goodies' including a required additional piece of hardware for your Spectrum computer. The retail price of Bandersnatch was expected to be around £40 and it was to be a completely new concept in computer games. Apparently 10 professional artists were working on the graphics alone. Bandersnatch was never released. On the 9th of July 1984, Imagine went bust after only 18 months of operation. Interestingly, its demise was documented by a BBC television program

(note: i think the game was for Commodore 64 - at least most people seem to use C64 there, although a few ZXs are shown too)

[Chubz]

Another excellent documentary video (and this one may have already been posted before here at Rome.Ro) is THIS one.

It follows Imagic as they create the Atari 2600 video game "Atlantis."  Has some really cool stuff in it.  I understand it doesn't have anything to do with the ZX Spectrum or Commodore, but I just thought I'd share that one as well since both videos are set in the 80's.  Funny thing is, both videos begin with the same music!  I wonder if it's part of the same TV program?

Thank you for sharing that video with us also, Sector.  Hadn't seen that one before!  I always absolutely love seeing videos of gaming in the past, especially when it follows the development of those games.